Chapter 14: God of War

While Daria and Erwin were working on programming the welding robots, out in the old habitat space Anton checked his hard suit to make certain there were no air leaks. There were 12 of these suits. The original colonists had brought the suits with them. The original mission planning committee was concerned that if they had to blast rock using high explosive, protection was needed from potential shrapnel. While the suit would not protect him against the direct hit of a round from the Groundfighters, nevertheless it was good to at least have protection against ricochets or shrapnel. In any event it was much more robust than a regular surface suit. He just wished there were enough for everyone in his squad to have one.

Next Anton began checking the weapons for his team. Fabrication had done a good job printing some reasonable firearms. They had what amounted to semi-automatic sniper rifles to fire the 12.5 mm (50 caliber) explosive rounds that were also printed and then assembled. This would be a battle based on mobility not sheer firepower or rate of fire. They had to fire and quickly relocate. Otherwise, the Groundfighters might be able to determine their positions from the trajectories of the incoming rounds. Then they could send in a shell to take out the colonists. That was not in Anton's plan and certainly not Erwin's.

Anton's squad would defend the nuclear reactor. He had two other defenders with combat experience under him and three additional members in the squad. Plus he had a logistics and mobility team with one rover and four people. The only thing that concerned him was the limited ammunition available. He had just 30 rounds for use by his team. He also had 12 anti-groundfighter mines, which could be set off by contact or by remote control. These armaments should be enough as long as this was just a defensive assignment.

At the same time in another room Bert was doing the same thing as Anton. He would be leading the main defense against the known Groundfighters. To do the job he had a platoon of 10 – most with combat experience, 60 rounds of ammunition and 30 anti-groundfighter mines. He knew that Anton shared his concern about going into combat with so little ammunition. Bert had first-hand experience with these combat robots from the war. They were bad news. He had lost many good troops assaulting positions they held. When attacking they never flinched. There was no emotion. They were soulless machines.

Tom waited by his rover for Bert and his team. Tom had an additional three people for the logistics crew. Of those three, two were experienced in first-aid. One of those had experience with war casualties. Never in his life had he imagined that he would be driving what now amounted to a combat vehicle into a war zone. He and his team had spent the last few days stripping unnecessary equipment from the rover. That way if it was hit fewer instruments would be damaged. It also increased the rovers range and made space for the 15 people and their equipment, which it would be carrying. He also had 9 of Daria's welding robots strapped to the roof. The other team had three.

Bert and his platoon approached Tom's rover wearing their hard suits and carrying their helmets and equipment. The logistics team helped the platoon stow their gear. When everyone was in their seats Tom called Commander Ramirez. "Rover 1 ready to deploy," he reported.

The commander responded, "Roger Rover 1." After what was a long 5 minute wait the message came, "Rover 1 and Rover 2 you are clear to deploy. Godspeed and good hunting!"

The garage area depressurized and the doors opened allowing both rovers to drive out into the Martian sunshine. Tom immediately started toward the approved contact point, which would be about an hour's drive. The second rover in the squad followed. They were expecting the robots in about three hours. The passage was long and mostly silent. Everyone wore their helmets and were plugged into the air system. The rover was kept depressurized in case it was hit and punctured. Being depressurized also speeded the time it took to get out of the vehicle. Tom could tell that the veterans in the platoon had music going inside of their helmets. They were getting 'into the zone.'

Once the rovers reached the predetermined point Tom checked the latest intelligence information. He turned and said to the people on his vehicle, "The Groundfighters are on schedule. There has been no change in their speed or direction. There is no indication at this time that they are aware of our presence. Earth will move into communications blackout in 22 minutes."

"Alright," Bert replied. As he got up, so did the rest of his platoon. Turning to them they came to attention. Facing them Bert said, "This Mars. This is your homeworld. Be prepared to die defending it. You now have that opportunity. I expect you to kill these things and use their own limbs to beat them into scrap. Success!"

"Hoorah," the platoon responded. Then they dismounted from the vehicle. Tom's crew passed their gear to them. They took their weapons, ammunition, mines, and packs and headed out.

Tom got his crew working to first unload the welding robots. As soon as they hit the ground they ran off on their own. He hoped that Daria knew what she were doing. Once that was done the crew concentrated on deploying the field hospital. First and foremost they laid out varying sizes of suit patches. They tested the rapid fill outlets on the rover, which could rapidly supply air to depleted tanks or a breached suit. Tom drilled them twice on setup and emergency takedown. He deployed the solar array to recharge some of the battery power before it would be needed. He wondered what was happening with the squad, but the decision had been made to keep radio silence unless it was absolutely necessary. The Groundfighters had 'ears.'

Bert looked over the mound that concealed him and two of his men. He had split his platoon into three squads of three plus one member for purely reconnaissance. The gap that the robots would be coming through was not narrow enough that they would come through single file. Since they probably did not know about the ambush they would come through at least three abreast. For that matter, the gap was wide enough that all nine could walk through at the same time.

Each of Bert's men had a rifle. One in each squad was a trained sniper. Back at the colony they had trained the others – all veterans – on sniping. The key was to take out the "bubble" on top of the robot first. This held their sensor pickups and communications gear. It was not armored and therefore made a good target. Even with that gone, however, they could still communicate with each other. Even destroying the sensor pickups the squads still had to move fast after taking their shots. The sensor bubbles would have had time to give the central computers the ability to determine the trajectories of the incoming rounds and the robot would return fire. Groundfighters were deadly accurate when they fired.

That was why the next target was the body. It housed the central computer array. There were also some backup sensors. Groundfighters could determine the direction of fire from a hit on the armor piercing rounds the platoon carried were designed to explode inside the body and shred everything. That should end the robots as a threat.

Bert had carefully planned where his troops would start the ambush and each subsequent hiding place. The point was to keep them under cover and hopefully stop the robots before they reached the platoon's positions. The reconnaissance soldier was the key to ensuring that they were stopped. She was out placing mines in strategic locations. The mines they had made were essentially claymore mines, which would explode and send shrapnel tearing through the armor of the robots' bodies. They would be set off by touch or by remote control. She had also programmed a drone to fly over the battlefield and broadcast video of the encounter. Until such time as the robots chose to shoot it down it would give them a valuable tool for the engagement. Bert was counting on the robots being focused on the engagement with his troops rather than the high flying drone. Once in the air Sheila would only receive video. She would not send instructions to the drone so that the the robots could not detect her transmission and determine her position. The one advantage to fighting Groundfighters was that they were not strategic thinkers. They were designed to handle the most immediate threat and move on.

Once all of their bubbles were destroyed the humans would have a substantial advantage.

Bert felt or heard someone tap his suit. He turned and the sniper in this squad pointed toward the gap. Bert checked the display on the camouflage periscope they had set up. Showtime. The Groundfighters were coming through the gap. They were walking in three ranks of three. Bert set up an aerial tactical display in his helmet. The robots would be within range in about 30 seconds.

The first thing that Bert saw were flashes as the welding robots sprang from their hiding places. Like ravenous spiders one welding robot ran to each Groundfighter. In the first 5 seconds they ran up the Groundfighters' right leg and welded themselves to the back of the torso.

Back in the Library, Daria was feverishly making sure that each robot locked onto its target. On her display each welding robot turned from red to green when it was securely welded onto its Groundfighter's back – a position which the target could not reach to get it off.

The next step in the program was to deploy the proboscis around the edge of the thigh. The attackers used a system much like a human ball-in-socket hip. There was thinner armor in the external seam allowing better movement. Erwin and Daria were taking advantage of that. The proboscis deployed and immediately started burning a 4 mm hole in the seam using the laser welding feature. This took 8 seconds.

At 15 seconds after contact the welding robot inserted an arc welding wire into the internal moving hip and started welding. The goal was to get the hip to seize and thereby slow the forward motion of the Groundfighter. It didn't really matter whether the hip seized from being welded or from too much foreign material being introduced into it. The objective was to at least degrade the joint or end its usefulness.

–-

With 2 seconds left Bert switched his helmet radio to transmit.

"All units fire," he commanded.

The troops knew what to do from their training. In unison nine 12.5 mm guns fired their rounds. The troops immediately ran to their next positions. A second before running Bert switched off his transmitter. As everyone ran to the next position they made certain that the portions of their run in the open did not point to the next position. This increased the time needed to take up the position, but it would also help misdirect the robots as to where they were running. Bert wouldn't know the effectiveness of the first volley until he was repositioned. He did know that the robots had returned fire by the sound of rock kicked up by their impacting rounds hitting his hard suit.

Arriving at the second position he checked the periscope display. It looked like 5 of the 9 robots had their bubbles destroyed. That meant that they were all running off of the information provided by the other four robots. At least 2 with bubbles appeared to be limping. Three ranks of three robots – less two – now were running toward the platoons' previous positions at about three times the speed of a running human. Bert used hand signals to order his squad to concentrate their fire on the remaining robots with the bubbles. In less than 10 seconds the remaining bubbles were gone. The robots were still a great danger, but less so than a few seconds before. The men again moved. This time to the third set of positions.

Bert switched to aerial view. The robots were now headed for the squads' second positions and he could see his men moving. There were 4 now slowing and exhibiting a distinct limp. The robots had spread out and adopted a tactic of firing about every 10 meters in an arc in order to kill anything ahead of them.

Bert's men fired from their third position. It was effective. The 4 that were limping before were now on the ground – stopped. The welding robots freed themselves and began the process of cutting off the Groundfighters' hands, which held their weapon. One other had been destroyed as well. They were down to 4 robots still moving, but they were slowing and starting to limp. Even one working Groundfighter was one too many.

Now Bert guessed that the enemy's tactics would be similar to what he had experience in the war. Blinded, they would form a line with the remaining Groundfighters next to each other and continue to their designated targets – in this case the positions from which the squads had just fired – killing everything in their arc of fire. With the robots' sensors now down and forward motion reduced to less than twice human running pace Bert once again turned on his transmitter.

"Fire at will. Take them out." Once again gunfire erupted on Mars.

"Sir, we have a casualty. Peterson is hit. He is venting."

"One of you keep firing and the other patch the suit. Medic get up here and evacuate."

Tom heard the order and sent two medics to Peterson's position to evacuate him. Tom could see where he was from the aerial display. They used a small vehicle which had been attached to the second rover. It was almost like a motorcycle with a stretcher in place of a sidecar.

The squad member protecting Peterson had successfully stopped another robot. They had now destroyed two-thirds of them. The remaining three were getting a little close for comfort. The first one to approach them was firing and hit a mine. When the mine went off it punched a wide array of holes in the robot's armor. The robot stopped, stood erect, and then seemed to shoulder its weapon before falling backward into the regolith. Now there were two. One was limping and the other was dragging its right leg, which appeared to have seized at the hip.

The remaining Groundfighters kept on coming. They were heading for the ends of Bert's line and at least one – possibly both – would be out of range of a mine. Bert split his squad. He sent two to support the troops at the end where Peterson went down. The other one he sent to the opposite end. Fortunately, they no longer had to zig-zag to avoid detection.

"Keep concentrating fire on the bodies. See if you can hit a couple of points consistently. That will help punch through."

"Roger," was the response Bert received from his troops.

Over the radio Sheila stated, "Sir, I have an idea. I sent some explosive up with the drone. I may be able to drop it on top of the one on the right."

"Do it," Bert replied. Bert watched as Sheila took over the drone and flew it over the still moving robot. He had not realized that a feature had been added allowing her to lock onto a target and then have the drone follow it right overhead. Once locked on she dropped the explosive and it went off right where the bubble used to join the body. Looking up over the boulder he was crouching behind, Bert saw material emanating from the hole. First the robot fell down and then it exploded. Apparently the ammunition magazine inside had been hit.

"Good shooting, Sheila," Bert shouted. "Now we are down to one."

The remaining robot came over the barrier shielding the men on Bert's left. They quickly scrambled over the barrier to the other side. Getting behind the robot they were out of the immediate line of fire. The robot moved forward and swept the area ahead with its gun. Without sensors the Groundfighter was unable to detect troops behind it. This gave the squad a unique opportunity. At point blank range they fired not directly forward into their enemy, but underneath and slightly upward. This allowed them to penetrate the armor where it was weakest. The rounds exploded inside the robots body. The firing stopped and it fell forward.